Mats made from reclaimed tire carcass treads

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to floor mat units made from single layer tread strips cut from discarded tire carcasses having attached thereto a web layer on a tread strip surface opposite to the tire tread and their method of manufacture. These mat units have a flexible, resilient, skid-proof and easy to walk on tire tread surface of long life which can bear heavier loads and longer life when constructed of steel belted tires, which provide convenient and low cost internal reinforcement wires. In different embodiments, the web strip is formed from either flexible plastic or fiber glass web material or from wire mesh stiff webbing material. The mat units comprise at least two side-by-side layer strips of tire treads secured on a mesh sheet, and thus can be constructed in various sizes and aspect ratios. For example parquet nine inch by nine inch type floor tiles have two four and a half inch strips, nine inches long attached to a nine inch by nine inch web sheet. Larger parquet type units may be twenty four by twenty four inch in size and made of four side by side tire strips with a width of six inches and a length of twenty four inches attached to a twenty four inch by twenty four inch web layer. Mat units may be custom styled with dimensions to fit automobile floors, pickup truck surfaces, and door mats of conventional size.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This invention relates to improvement of the environment byfinding ways to eliminate tire carcasses that serve as breeding groundsfor mosquitos, and more particularly it relates to manufacturingprotective flexible surfaced floor covering mats made from reclaimeddiscarded tire carcasses having mat outer surfaces formed of tire treadstrips cut from the reclaimed tire carcasses.

BACKGROUND

[0002] It is well recognized at this stage of the art that tirecarcasses are piled in outdoor dumps where they accumulate water therebycreating breeding grounds for mosquitos. Reducing the piles of carcassesby making useful articles of manufacture therefrom is an environmentalimprovement that significantly aids in the elimination of such diseasesas the Nile Virus spread to humans, animals and birds by mosquitos.

[0003] Furthermore these discarded tire carcasses provide an inexpensiveraw material that inherently has the properties of long life, a flexibleand resilient tire tread surface, particularly advantageous as anon-slip footing in door mats for example. The internal steel wirereinforcement from steel belted tires additionally increase the loadweights and lifetime of mats in applications that expect heavy dutyservice.

[0004] It has been proposed that building products and mats be made fromdiscarded tire carcasses in U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,069, Apr. 16, 2002,issued to Dennis P. Walls for PRODUCT AND METHOD FOR USED TIRES. Hereinproducts made from tire treads are beams, posts, building materials, ormats formed from narrow lengths of either sidewall strips or treadstrips cut from discarded tire carcasses, which are required to bevulcanized with two strips sealed together back-to-back forming stiffdouble layer strips with treads outwardly facing on both sides. Thus thetire strip elements are inherently stiff and un-flexible. Any matsformed are narrow and longitudinal in shape. There is no provision forsingle layer flexible tread products that conform to a mating surface ofa porch, sidewalk, pickup truck bed, automobile floor, or the like. Noris there any teaching of combining strips side by side for making widemats with an aspect ratio useful for door-mats, floor-mats inautomobiles or pick-up floor surfaces, or for providing floorsconstructed of floor tiles having a flexible, resilient non-slipuppermost surface provided by the tire treads.

[0005] Thus this invention corrects the aforesaid defects of those priorart mats made from tire tread strips formed of two plies of tire treadstrips vulcanized together with outwardly facing tire treads, andprovides mats having un-limited widths, high flexibility, light weightand unlimited generally quadratic geometric shapes. Therefore, thisinvention introduces improved mat products ideally suited to serve asautomobile floor cushions, pickup truck bed protective mats, door mats,and parquet style floor covering tiles, for example.

[0006] It is therefore an objective of this invention to provideimproved and inexpensive protective mats made of thin flexible andresilient strips of discarded tire carcasses that can be mass producedat competitive prices to use up significant quantities of tire carcassesstored in the outside environment, thus reducing risk of epidemicscarried by mosquitos breeding in the tire carcasses.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

[0007] This invention modifies single layer tire tread strips cut fromdiscarded tire carcasses to adapt the tire strips into manufacturedproducts having utility as thin mats and floor coverings in generalpresenting a slip-proof and resiliently yielding surface. Theimprovements permit mats of various quadrilateral configuration to beattained in a unit configuration by placing several side-by-side treadstrips on a retaining surface that holds several tire tread stripstogether in a pre-formed mat unit.

[0008] One preferred inexpensive and versatile embodiment thus has alower surface flexible web, such as a plastic or fiber glass mesh,affixed to the tire tread strip, typically with side-by-side strips.Such a unit expedites handling the end products and retains side-by-sidetread strips in place with the ability to conform with surfacevariations and contours of porch surfaces, automobile floor surfaces,and the like. This light weight resilient and flexible web configurationpermits mats to adapt closely to a wooden deck surface for example thatmay not have exactly level side by side deck planking.

[0009] When flat surfaces are available, the web can be rigid, by usingwire mesh for example. This creates utility as inexpensive parquet styleflooring. The wire mesh keeps the mats light, strong and inexpensive inthose applications where flexibility of the mat surface contour is notnecessary. In some applications solid rigid sheets of plastic or metalmay serve as the lower surface layer rather than webs.

[0010] An advantageous embodiment of a larger surface area mat unit thuscomprises two or more side-by-side tread strips affixed to a singlebacking sheet covering the entire mat surface area. When flexiblebacking webs are used, the side by side strips may be relatively foldedor bent away from each other during handling and installation. Typicallya mat could have one tire tread strip extended vertically to serve as abase-plate panel around the sides of a room. Also plastic or fiber glassweb layers can maintain a desirable retaining friction surface on theunderside of the mat well adapted to receive an adhesive surface forsecuring a mat unit in place.

[0011] It is clear therefore that mats do not have to be limited inwidth to the width of a single tire tread strip cut from the tirecarcass. The mats readily then can attain significant areaquadri-lateral shape configurations by way of the surface layers affixedto the bottom web surface having two or more side-by-side tire treadstrips arranged in a mat unit.

[0012] Another significant advantage of the mat units of this inventionis that they are reinforced by the steel belt wiring of the tire treadstrips thereby having longer life and bearing greater loads withoutelimination of the resilient surface effect or flexibility.

[0013] The backing sheet to the tire tread lower surface is readilyaffixed to the tire tread strips at low cost with adhesives orvulcanization to provide the low product cost advantage derived from theformerly manufactured tire carcass raw materials.

[0014] Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will befound throughout the following drawings, specification and claims.

THE DRAWINGS

[0015] In the accompanying drawings similar reference characters foundin the several views represent similar features to facilitatecomparison.

[0016]FIG. 1 is a plan view of a mat configuration showing the treadconfiguration on the upper surface of a multiple side-by-side tire treadstrip mat unit having the tire tread strips held together by a lowermostweb surface;

[0017]FIG. 2 is a plan view looking downwardly into the lower websurface layer of FIG. 1;

[0018]FIG. 3 is a plan view, partly in section and partly broken away,showing the mat unit configuration of FIG. 1, with one verticallyextending tire strip panel serving for example as a base-board memberabout the sidewalls of a room;

[0019]FIG. 4 is an exploded end view section view of a mat unit showinga protective covering member at the right side;

[0020]FIG. 5 is a plan view of a nine inch by nine inch parquet tileembodiment of the invention, partly broken away to show lowermost weband adhesive layers; and

[0021]FIG. 6 is a plan view presenting a twenty four by twenty four inchflexible and resilient rubber surface on this mat unit embodiment of theinvention.

SPECIFICATION

[0022]FIGS. 1 and 2 are respectively top and bottom plan views of apreferred embodiment of a mat unit configuration suitable for conformingto the contour of an automobile floorboard having three side-by-sidefour inch wide and sixteen inch long tire tread strips 15, 16, 17 withthe tread surface exposed (FIG. 1) as the working upper surface. Thegaps between her separate tire strips are exaggerated to betterillustrate the web layer on the backside of the tread strip. The tiretread strips 15, 16 and 17 are secured on the lower surface opposite tothe tread surface to the web backing sheet 18 such as by adhesives orvulcanization. One typical securing adhesive is a “3M” “Scotch Grip”brand fast drying, heat curable adhesive that resists weathering, water,and oil, which is commercially available from Minnesota Mining &Manufacture Corporation.

[0023] The web 18 is typically a fiber glass or nylon mesh which coupledto the flexibility of a single layer of the tire tread strip conformsreadily with different surface contour shapes, such as when used as afloor mat in an automobile. For flat surface utility such as onconcrete, wooden or asphalt floors, an inexpensive and light weight wiremesh commonly available for fencing provides rigidity.

[0024]FIG. 3 shows the lower tire tread strip 17 moved vertically aspermitted with a flexible web 18. This feature permits convenience whenhandling and could stand vertically at room wall edges of a floorserving as a baseboard member. Wires 19 protruding from the uppermostedge and the right end of tread strip 17 reinforce the mat unit givingit longer life and ability to handle greater loads. That feature comesinherently without extra cost from steel belted tire raw material. Sincethe wires are sharp and could cause damage to bare hands when manuallyhandled, a protective cover member such as a plastic film or othersuitable edge member with an adhesive self-sticking layer may be addedto cover the exposed ends of the extending wires. Alternatively, theedges may be buffed by a grinding wheel to remove extending wires 19.

[0025] As shown in the exploded view of FIG. 4, the protective covermember 20 may comprise a metallic or extruded U-shaped member to befrictionally fit over the mat unit thickness or adhered thereto by anadhesive coating. In this embodiment of FIG. 4, the tire strip layer 15has a flexible plastic web layer 18 with an adhesive on both upper andlower layers to retain a lowermost stiff metal sheet 21.

[0026]FIG. 5 represents a parquet type floor tile mat typically havingan outer dimension of nine inches by nine inches. Thus, two tire treadstrips 15′, 16′, four and a half inches wide and nine inches long, havea nine inch by nine inch stiff wire mesh web 22 attached adhesively tothe lower smooth surface of both tire treads 15′, 16′. The bottomadhesive layer 23 adheres to a floor surface (not shown). A typicaladhesive for this layer 23 is commercially available for this utilityfrom Minnesota Mining and Manufacture Corporation under the trade namebrand “3M” adhesive transfer tapes. Such tapes have high bondingstrengths, sustain high temperatures and bond to plastics such asasphalt floors, as well as cement and wooden floors.

[0027]FIG. 6 represents a larger mat unit 25 twenty four inches bytwenty four inches in dimension. Four tire tread strips four inches inwidth and twenty four inches in length are formed in a mat unit ashereinbefore described with a rigid metal mesh webbing layer. The sizesof the mat units are variable as determined by variations of the numberof side-by-side tire tread strips, their length and widths. Tire treadstrips from two to six inches in width are readily cut from the tirecarcasses.

[0028] Having thus improved the state of the mat arts to be moreversatile in size, flexure, resilience, strength, long life, low weightyet being inexpensive because of the nature of the raw materialdiscarded tire carcasses. This gives the additional advantage to thisinvention of removing tire carcasses from the environment to reduce thelikelihood of disease from mosquito breeding beds in water collected inthe tire carcasses.

[0029] Those novel features of this invention are defined withparticularity in the following claims reflecting the nature and spiritof the invention.

1. A mat unit comprising in combination, at least one single layer stripof tire tread cut from a discarded tire carcass, tread face up andsecured on the opposite face to an underlying mesh layer.
 2. The matunit defined in claim 1 further comprising at least two side-by-sidestrips of tire tread secured to a single underlying mesh layer.
 3. Themat unit defined in claim 1 wherein the underlying mesh layer is stiff.4. The mat unit defined in claim 3 wherein the underlying mesh layercomprised a wire mesh.
 5. The mat unit defined in claim 1 wherein themesh layer is flexible.
 6. The mat unit defined in claim 5 furthercomprising at least two side-by-side strips of tire tread secured in aplanar configuration on a single flexible mesh layer sheet ofestablished configuration, wherein the side-by-side strips are held in aconfiguration permitting the side-by-side tire strips to be flexed awayfrom the planar configuration.
 7. The mat unit defined in claim 6further comprising a layer of rigid material attached to the mesh sheetfacing opposite the treads on the tire strips.
 8. The mat unit definedin claim 1 further comprising steel belted tire carcass tread strips,and protective covering means disposed along at least one mat edgehaving exposed ends of steel belt wires for protection during manualhandling of the mat unit.
 9. The mat unit defined in claim 8 wherein theprotective covering comprises a U-channel shaped rigid member.
 10. Themat unit defined in claim 9 wherein the protective covering comprises anextruded plastic member.
 11. The mat unit of claim 8 wherein theprotective covering comprises a flexible elastic sheet with a selfadhesive coating.
 12. The mat unit defined in claim 7 wherein the rigidmember comprises a metallic member.
 13. The mat unit defined in claim 1wherein the tire tread surface opposite to the tread is secured to themesh layer by an adhesive coating.
 14. The mat unit defined in claim 3further comprising an adhesive coating carried by the stiff mesh layerfor adhesively securing the mat unit to a floor surface.
 15. The methodof manufacturing improved rubber floor mat units having a resilient andflexible protective upper surface comprising the steps of cutting astrip of tire tread from a discarded tire carcass and securing to asingle layer of said tire tread strip on a surface opposite the tiretread a web layer.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the step ofsecuring the web layer further comprises securing a flexible web layerto the tire tread strip.
 17. The method of claim 15 wherein the step ofsecuring the web layer further comprises securing a rigid web layer tothe tire tread strip.
 18. The method of claim 15 further comprising thesteps of selecting a steel belt carcass which at strip edges exposeextending wire ends, and buffing the strip edges to remove the extendingwire ends.